Ole Miss vs. Auburn

(3-3, 0-2 SEC) (1-4, 0-3 SEC)

Auburn defensive end Corey Lemonier (55)

The setup

Ole Miss looks for first SEC win

It's been a tough six weeks for the Ole Miss football team already, with today's game the only thing standing between the Rebels and a bye week. But how today's game goes could change the tenor of the final five games of the 2012 season. Ole Miss is 3-3 and 0-2 in the SEC but still has a bowl game in its sight. But in order to move up into the middle tier of SEC teams, you have to beat the teams at the bottom. And, right now, that appears to be Auburn. The Tigers are a mess, 1-4 (0-3 in the SEC) and a Hail Mary away from 0-5. The biggest paper in the state of Alabama wrote this week about how coach Gene Chizik's buyout ($7.5 million) was more manageable than you may think. By the way, we're still only two years removed from Auburn winning a national title. Ole Miss wins today and it only needs to go 2-3 the rest of the way to make it to a bowl, with games against Arkansas and Vanderbilt still remaining. Lose to Auburn, and it's a rough bye week with a looming challenge.

3 things we're talking about

What will Auburn do on offense?

If you know, let Hugh Freeze or defensive coordinator Dave Wommack know. Heck, maybe let Gene Chizik and offensive coordinator Scott Loeffler know. The Tigers have not named a starting quarterback and may end up playing both Kiehl Frazier and Clint Moseley. Loeffler said this week he'd like to get the Tigers back to basics: run the football well, and use that to open up the play-action pass. That sounds nice, until you consider that Auburn is averaging less than 4 yards a carry this season. It beats what happened last week, when Auburn scored seven points and its QBs were sacked eight times against Arkansas. The Razorbacks had just given up 52 points to Texas A&M, by the way. Not a good look for the Tigers.

Bo Wallace's next step

It's been a difficult week on several levels for Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace, who blamed himself for mistakes that he felt cost Ole Miss a win against Texas A&M. only to find out On Monday night, however, he found out that a far more serious situation was on hand with his sister involved in a car accident. After midweek surgery, she's fine, and Wallace should be able to be focused and locked in today. He improved last week in throwing the ball away when nothing was there, but he has to settle down and not get greedy if the game should go into the final minutes with Ole Miss needing a score. That's the next step in the maturation process for Wallace.

Just win baby

It's been two long years and 16 SEC losses in a row since Ole Miss was able to celebrate a conference win. The Rebels came oh so close a week ago, only to come up short. Finishing has been the message all week, for just that reason. And players said they were tired of moral victories and wanted to win football games. But how many blows can this team take? Most of this team has experienced only one SEC win during their careers, if that. All indications show this team bounces back and is a resilient group overall, so maybe they blow the doors off Auburn to start the game. Or they play into the fourth quarter, where we learn if this team is ready to improve in late-game situations.